García (surname)

García (Castillian), Garcicea (Basque), Garciandia (Basque), Gaztea (Basque)
Family name
Pronunciation [ɡaɾˈθi.a] (Spain) or [ɡaɾˈsi.a] (Latin America)
Region of origin Spain
Related names Garci, Garza, Garcia, Garcés, Garcicea, Garciandia, Gassie, Gassion, Gaztea
Footnotes: Frequency Comparisons:[1]

Garcia or García is a Basque origin surname common throughout Spain, Portugal, parts of France, the Americas, and the Philippines.

It is attested since the high Middle Ages north and south of the Pyrenees (Basque Culture Territories), with the surname (sometimes first name too) thriving especially on the Kingdom of Navarre and spreading out to Castile and other Spanish regions.

Ramón Menéndez Pidal and Antonio Tovar believed it to derive from the Basque word (H)artz, meaning "(the) Bear".[2][3][4][5][6] Alfonso Irigoyen suggests it may come from a Basque adjective garze(a) meaning "young", whose modern form is gaztea or gaztia.[6][7] A third etymology suggests it may derive from the Basque words "Gazte Hartz", meaning "(the) young bear". Variant forms of the name include Garcicea, Gartzi, Gartzia, Gartze, Garsea, and Gastea.[8] The original Basque form with an affricate sibilant (/ts/, Basque spelling /tz/) evolved in Spanish to the current form.

There are Gasconic cognates of Garcia like Gassie and Gassion[9] (Béarn, Gassio 14th century,[10] real name of Edith Piaf, born Edith Gassion).

Other theories suggest that García is of Germanic origin and may derive from wars meaning young warrior [11] or the Visigothic words garxa and garcha meaning graceful prince.[12]

It is a surname of patronymic origin; García was a very common first name in early medieval Spain. García is the most common surname in Spain (where 3.32% of population is named García) and also the second most common surname in Cuba. It has become common in the United States due to substantial Latin American immigration, and is now the 8th most common surname in the U.S.[13]

In the 1990 United States Census, Garcia was the 18th most reported surname, accounting for 0.25% of the population.[14] Quite rare before the 1st World War in France, except in the French Pays Basque,[15] Garcia is now the 14th most common surname in France (the 8th one for the number of birth between 1966 and 1990), due to an important Spanish immigration.[16][17] It ranked second in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur after the number of births 1966–1990.[18] García is also the third most common surname amongst Spanish in the United Kingdom.

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This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/10/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.